Pet-free Travel Tips: What to Do With Your Pets When You Travel

Pet owner’s guilt is a real thing. And a terrible one at that. The guilt over leaving your pet behind can cause stress over what to do with your furry friend, or, even worse, make you not want to travel at all. A survey conducted in the USA by TrustedHousesitters.com that was covered by the media in May this year shows that half of pet owners do not travel because they can’t find any satisfying pet care solutions.

If that wasn’t enough, the majority of pet owners who do travel feel guilty over leaving their dog behind. And that majority is overwhelming, a whooping 72% of those who own a pet. And don’t I know it! Ares’ first trip abroad happened because my mom was in tears (and I was sick with worry) over the possibility of leaving our dog at a pet hotel for three days. We have nothing against pet hotels, we just hand’t had any experiences, so we hadn’t tested any. This was, after all, a last minute trip that eventually led to us taking him with us.

To help those new at either owning pets, or travelling while having them, I’ve come up with this handy inphographic that gives you a few ideas of what to do with your furry friends while you travel. It makes it easy to save and remember what options you have, and there’s a code for you to copy paste if you want to share it on different blogs.

Check it out and read below for a more detailed review of all three options, with pros and cons, because I’ve tried them all!

Now, let’s analyze each of these options (base on my thoughts and experience)!

1. Have a Close Friend or Relative Pet-Sit

This is the alternative of babysitting for your pets. You ask someone you trust and who’s at ease with the pet to come and stay with them. I love this option, because the pet does not have to be taken out of their home and taken somewhere else. So they only have to deal with you not being around for a while, not with a new place as well. Depending on your relationship with them, this might only cost you the food in your fridge and a favor or two down the line.

If you don’t have friends or relatives who can help, you can hire a dog sitter. Unless you have someone tested and approved, if this is a spur of the moment trip, it will still stress you out. You’ll worry about pets and property and it will cost you more.

2. Leave Your Pet With Friends

This is a great option when you can’t have someone pet sit at home. If your friends and pet are comfortable with each other, then this works like a charm. More so when they have a pet of their own. Your beloved furry companion will have a friend to play with, loving humans around, and an adventure when traveling to their house.

As in the previous case, costs are low and the guilt is severely reduced. Plus your friends will keep you updated on what the dog does.

I’ve used this option once when I traveled for two weeks for business. Ares went outside to play three times a day with his sister, Kira. He was delighted, and not really stressed about my not being there, after the first couple of hours without me. It proved a great choice because he got an ear infection, which my friends were quick to deal with.

3. Find a Reliable Dog Hotel

When you have no one to pet-sit and no friends or family who can take your dog in, a good dog hotel is a life saver. This however requires research and testing. It does not work very well with last minute trips. Even when you have a dog hotel that you’re comfortable with, things might change, and you need a few options ready.

This is by far the most expensive option you have, so if your budget is limited, it won’t really work. A good dog hotel means a lot of play time, professional care, and a vet on standby. I did this a couple of times, at a great hotel in a village ten kilometers from my city. It’s where Ares’ trainer works, so I had tested it quite a bit. However, this did add pressure to my travel budget, and I felt the need to find a better option.

What Am I Doing When I Travel Without My Dog?

Whenever I am away and I can’t take Ares with me, I now have a near-perfect solution. The dog stays at home with my mom. Ares is used to being home with her, they keep each other company, so that part is settled. The only problem? My mom has serious back issues which prevent her from being able to walk him. If he ever pulls just a little, it would be too much for her, and she also walks really slowly. So when i am away, she feeds and cares for him, while my friend Magda and her son take turns in walking Ares. Magda and I walk our dogs together every day, so this is amazing for Ares, as he gets to see his buddy Pufy when he goes outside to play.

Of course, no solution is perfect, I have to make sure Magda can actually take care of the walks when I am away. It’s a hybrid that works for us though, and so far, after three tries, it’s the best solution I’ve had so far.

We currently travel less because we do not have a reliable dog sitter. Previously, we had a great free-range (no kennels or cages) policy. The dogs has separate fenced areas, or could all play together, plus walks. It is tough to find the right arrangement for pets, but worth it to have a pet!

This is so on point. I have faced pet owner (dogs) guilt so many times. I think this is some excellent advice and suggestions for any pet owner and it is always hard leaving them. No matter where you decide to leave your pet you always want to be sure they are in safe and caring hands.

Even here in Manila, it is hard to leave pets at home (unless you have relatives who are kind-enough to babysit your pets, and just bride them with a lovely staycation), pet-boarding also works here, and at least being accommodated with professionals.

My dog was a rescue and is very shy so we have someone come care for her at home. It serves the added benefit of someone keeping an eye on the house! There are lots of companies that do that here in the US, so we’re lucky!

I don’t have pets since im a frequent traveller. So it can get a little bit complicated. But i think it would be easy if ypu have reliable friends or relatives who can watch over while you are travelling

This is very true. Some of my friends have a hard time leaving their pets to travel. The information shared on your post is very helpful for pet owners the world over. But for me, whenever possible, I offer to babysit my friends’ pets.

The joy and happiness a pet brings inte one’s life surely helps overcome the difficulties in finding places for them to stay when we travel 🙂 We usually leave them to some of our friends or neighbours 🙂 Nice list, thank you for sharing it

If the cats go outside and hunt, yeah, you’re safe. Plus as long as you have someone checking in on them every few days, leaving them enough food and water, they’ll manage. I have a dog, so no such luxury 😀

I have noticed this in mnay pet owners that their mobility reduces when they have pets. In india its too expensive to travel with pets and it becomes difficult to leave them behind as well. This post provides great insight as to how pet owners can also enjoy their share of travel instead of feeling ‘stuck’ and immobile.

We have been through this guilt of leaving our Dog behind during our travels, keep worrying about how its been taken care and have also cancelled our trips but fortunately we have some good pet care facilities here which has never caused us any problem yet.

I used to have a cat and I did feel guilty when I traveled! I would sometimes hire a catsitter and sometimes have my roommate care for him. Cats hate being boarded so I never really considered that as an option.

I think cats are a bit easier though. They’re a lot more self-sufficient, and you don’t have to take them on daily walks to make sure they exercise. But I know what you mean, with them, you kind of have to find a way to keep them in their home.

I have a guinea pig and a dog. This summer we had to leave both behind. What we did was leave our guinea pig with a friend that was willing to take care of her and take our dog to a petsitter. My dog is adopted so this petsitter is a friend of the veterinarian that took care of my dog before we adopted her, that’s why we trusted her and felt really comfortable leaving her with the petsitter. She also sent us daily pictures and updates on our dog that made us feel even more relaxed about it! So I really recommend you to ask the person who is taking care of your pet for updates and pictures to feel more relaxed.

While I love to travel a lot, I don’t really think I’ll ever be a long-term traveler or nomad because of my dogs! I love spending time with my dogs and I haven’t tried traveling with them, so after some time, I do start to miss them a lot. It’s not really more of the guilt — luckily, I have a big family and someone can always look after my dogs. It’s just that I miss them a lot. 🙂

I like having a home base to return to, really, and I prefer more trips and coming home than being completely nomad. I do love traveling with my dog, but he’s huge, so that isn’t always an option. You are right, missing him is more of a problem. Guilt comes in when you’re not super happy with what arrangements you made for them.

Since we have moved to Europe and we have two dogs… we have left them with a neighbor. We don’t leave them in our house. Our dogs are very comfortable at their house. One of their puppies is there too. But they are moving away so we have to find a new sitter. Oh the joys. But we don’t ever leave them in a kennel unless we have no other option.

I was really reluctant of the whole dog hotel concept. The only reason I did it was that I took my dog for training there and got to see it. The paddocks,the large yards where they dogs played, where they kept them, the works. And they also had a vet’s office there, which helped, even if it wasn’t a round the clock thing. Still feel more comfortable when he is home with my mom or staying with friends.

As a housesitter and petminder I am always happy to read about this as an option for pets. Our friends had a horrendous experience leaving their dog in a ‘kennel’ in Mexico and that alone convinced us to continue on this journey. We get to spend great time with furry friends and it can be difficult to part at the end but at least we know the animals are loved and cared for. I would recommend this to anyone. There are also tons more places where you can sign up as a homeowner or housesitter, from housecarers.com to mindmyhouse.com to housesitmatch.com I find Trusted Housesitters very busy and very difficult to get housesits or sitters from as you are inundated with replies so check out these others.

I totally agree with Faith, there are lots of Housesitters out there (us included) who will stay in your home and look after your pets whilst you’re away! In our experience this minimises their separation anxiety as they’re still in familiar surroundings, with the same routine, just different “hoomans”. We love being able to spoil them rotten for a few weeks, whilst checking out the surrounding area. Plus you know your home is being well looked after too.

Once again another good subject you've come up with here and I know the amount of effort needed for interesting new ideas. I have a dog reltaed blog and feel we could be a suitable fit to write each other a guest post. Why not have a look at one of my latest pet travel articles here- dog crates for traveling with and contact me if you're up for it! Thank you

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Pet travel tips: when you should leave your dog at home | Travel Moments In Time - Pet Travel: How to Make Road Trips Fun for both You and Your Dog

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